1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods for applying glaze-forming compositions to ceramic ware. Particularly, glaze-forming compositions that are malleable, plastic, and/or castable, and more particularly, glaze-forming compositions that are moldable onto a plastic clay body and bondable with a plastic clay body and capable of being fired and matured together with the ceramic clay body to thereby produce a glazed ceramic ware in one firing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, glaze-forming compositions have, in general, been liquids which have been applied to the surface of bisque fired ceramic clay bodies by painting, dipping, or spraying, which would be followed by a second firing operation. A few glazing processes provide for the application of the glaze-forming liquid to an unfired ceramic clay body which is then fired, thereby maturing both the glaze-forming liquid and the green ceramic clay body.
These compositions and processes have proved unsatisfactory; in fact, the potter and ceramic manufacturer are greatly constricted in their artistry and means of glazing by the fluid state of the glaze liquid. Being a liquid, the glaze-forming compositions, heretofore, naturally have a tendency to run or drip down the surfaces of the ceramic bodies, thereby preventing sharp and distinct coloring on the finished ceramic. It was also difficult to apply more than one glaze-forming composition at a time to the ceramic clay without having the compositions run together.
In the light of the above limitations imposed upon potters by the liquid glaze-forming compositions, it has been a long desire to develop a glaze-forming composition that would be plastic and moldable by hand or machine to the surface of a ceramic clay body. My patent entitled "GLAZE-FORMING COMPOSITION AND METHOD" (U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,468) discloses such a desirable plastic and moldable glaze-forming composition. As discussed therein, a glaze-forming composition is disclosed for producing a matured glaze on a ceramic clay body wherein the composition is a plastic, malleable, coherent mass, maturable into a glaze on the surface of the ceramic body upon firing and bondable to an unfired clay body.
Since a plastic and moldable glaze-forming composition has now been developed, it is especially important and desirable that adequate methods be developed for applying these new compositions to unfired ceramic clay bodies.